


Drive Into My Heart

by Anakin133



Series: Tyrus AU Challenge [2]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Race Car Driving, M/M, Tyrus AU Challenge, race car driving
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-11-27 08:55:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anakin133/pseuds/Anakin133
Summary: Cyrus Goodman was the most paranoid, safety-oriented kid in school. Now that he’s recently graduated, though, he decided to take a challenge - and he found his hidden talent. At the age of twenty, he has become one of the best race car drivers in the country.TJ Kippen is a twenty-year-old mechanic who works for his school nemesis and now popular race car driver, Buffy Driscoll. When she enters into the international Grand Prix and becomes instant friends with a boy and his mechanic, TJ feels a strange connection between the boy and himself.Will the newfound friendships between the competition cost them all the race?





	1. Chapter 1

• Cyrus' POV •

I have been racing since I was seventeen, practicing and working towards the goal of racing in Formula One. I've gone to a school, ranked up time in kart racing, and now that I have a team and am being sponsored, all I needed was for the F1 to admit my license as eligible and I'm able to reach my goal.

"I got it! Oh my gosh, I really got in!" I jumped up and down in joy, speeding into the large living room, in my mansion, where my four parents were conversing. "Guys! I got in!" My parents looked up, surprised at the sudden outburst, before engulfing me, as I panted from running, in a hug with proud smiles.

"We knew you would, dear."

"We're so proud of you."

"Congratulations, son."

"You earned it."

I beamed at my parents before my eyes went wide.

"Oh, I've got to tell Andi!" I rushed out of the room and up the stairs, picking my cell phone off the bed and dialing my best friend and official mechanic once I reached my bedroom. "Andi!"

"Hey, let me guess. You got in?" I pouted, even though she couldn't see me.

"Kill joy." I grumbled before grinning again. I sat on the edge of the bed and tapped my fingers nervously. "But yes! Can you go?"

"I told you three times before I could, Cy." She breathed a laugh.

"Okay, good. Just making sure!"

"I don't think you sound very excited."

"What?! I am too very excited! You're just-" I furrowed my eyebrows and sighed as the realization hit me. "Being sarcastic."

"Yup! Now, get ready! You know they're strict about when you get there."

"See you in a few days!" I ended the call and began packing immediately.

~

"Cyrus!" My best friend squealed, squeezing my side with her arm that was around my waist. "We're here!"

"Wow." I looked around the extensively decorated, huge hotel all of the racers were staying at. I beamed, grabbed Andi's hands and started jumping up and down with her. "We're really here!"

When we got to our suites, we quickly threw our luggage in, took a short look around, and bolted out of the hotel in search of food. It was a long flight, after all. We found a decent-looking restaurant with a sports bar, and immediately noticed several tables pushed together with the other race car drivers sitting. I would have much preferred to sit at a quiet table away from my young, noisy, soon-to-be competition. But Andi dragged me over to them, insisting I needed to know who I was dealing with.

"Hey, you guys are racers, right? I'm Andi, and this is-" She paused to grab my arm and lurch me forward dramatically, as I was cowering behind her hoping to pass as her shadow. "Cyrus."

"Hi Andi, hi Cyrus." The whole table chorused, before a curly-haired girl spoke up.

"I'm Buffy Driscoll, and this is TJ." She threw a careless thumb in the direction of the tall, thin, blonde boy slouched arrogantly in the chair beside her. Very attractive tall, thin, blonde boy. He locked eyes with me, and my breathing hitched. His tired, miserable, absolutely stunning, green eyes stared at me, then searched my face before darting to Andi's, but for much less time before returning his gaze on me.

"Are you two dating?" Andi's voice effectively snapped me out of my stare, both of us focusing between my best friend and Buffy.

"Ew, gosh no." Buffy scowled. "He's my mechanic."

"I think I'ma be sick just from you implying that." And oh. The boy, TJ, had a beautiful voice. It was filled with emotion but void of it at the same time. Buffy slapped him on his shoulder.

"Shut up, I'm amazing."

"Yeah. That, along with every other possible positive quality, I've never seen. And I've known you since eight grade." She hit him again, and he smirked.

"You're such a jerk."

"Yup, I am. What's your point?"

"You guys are like siblings." This time it was another boy that spoke. He had messy, light brown hair and was sitting across from Buffy. TJ snorted.

"Then she's the evil twin."

"Shut up." TJ then turned his attention to me, occasionally flicking his eyes to Andi.

"Are you two going to stand there all night, or...?" My eyebrows shot up. I had completely forgotten we were just hovering there.

"Oh, no. Sorry." Andi, of course, sat in the seat next to a blonde girl, which was only one of two seats left. She pointed subtly to the only chair left, which just so happened to be directly next to TJ, and smirked knowingly. I was having trouble breathing because of him already, and I was standing on the end of other side of the table! I groaned quietly before taking my seat and trying my best to melt into the chair. And for a while, everyone enjoyed separate conversations and ignored me. And then he ruined it and looked at me.

"So, are you Andi's mechanic?" I sighed. He wasn't the first to think outgoing, strong-willed Andi was the driver, considering how I'm quiet and obviously insecure.

"No, the other way around." TJ's eyebrows shot up, a soft smile on his face.

"You're a driver? That's so cool! I love driving, and I'm not too bad at it, honestly. I just don't have nearly the kind of money to race like this." I smiled. He didn't seem like that much of a jerk to me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe one day you'll get your chance." 

If only I knew how true my own statement would be.


	2. Chapter 2

• TJ's POV •

"Come on, TJ. Are you going to stand there all day or actually do something?" Buffy snapped, ruthlessly scrubbing her prized car. I was afraid she was going to scrub the paint off with her harshness. I took a bite of the apple I was holding, returning her exasperated glare with an amused and happy one, and smiled cheekily.

"I am doing something. It just happens to be standing here." She scoffed and knelt down to clean a barely-visible spot on the passenger door. Once I finished the apple, I brushed my hands together and knelt beside her, gently rubbing the car's infamous racer-type painting.

"So, you and that kid, Cyrus, huh?" She glanced at me with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows and flashed her a confused look before focusing back on the vehicle.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you two talking last night, at the restaurant. You seemed to get along good." I felt my cheeks warm up slightly, but managed to keep a expressionless face.

"Yeah, we did. He's supposed to be a great driver, so I'm kind of excited to see if that holds true." Buffy opened her mouth before shutting it, clearly taking a second to understand what I said.

"He drives?" I nodded, a small smile finding it's way to my face.

"Yeah, Andi's his mechanic. He'll be number twenty-four in the race. He's very safety-oriented, but he decided to come out of his shell in senior year. He had obvious talent his first run, so he pushed his fears aside for once and started working towards the goal of racing. He's won record time in three states." By now, I was beaming enthusiastically at Buffy, animatedly throwing my hands around to emphasize. She raised a knowing eyebrow, paired with a smirk, and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm going to rephrase my earlier statement of 'you seemed to get along good' to 'you seemed to get along perfectly'." I blushed harder, ducking my head in a fake attempt to look at some dirt on the car door.

"Yeah, so?" She snorted.

"Defensive now, Kippen?"

"Shut up."

~

I watched closely as the cars rounded the curve of the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit, number twenty-four in lead with Buffy close behind. It took me a little to figure out which car was twenty-four due to my dyscalculia, but once I saw Andi attending to the one car, I realized it was his. Cyrus was better than I expected - he managed to stay in first with some distance for the whole time now.

I held my breath as a car nudged it's way forward just barely edging past Buffy and into second, but she managed to get ahead of them just a second before they crossed finish line on their final lap. I ran out to greet the curly-haired girl (And if I was honest with myself, I was hoping to see Cyrus too) once the vehicles all slowed to a complete stop, some drivers already hopping out of their cars.

"Congrats, Slayer." It was a nickname my basketball team had given her in middle school, and it still stuck. I raised my eyebrows as she slammed her door and stormed right past me without so much as a glance. I cringed when I heard her start yelling to Marty, who happened to be the one who had almost taken her place in the end. I turned slowly to face the two arguing by the boy's car a few yards away from me. And then, like a fool, I flinched abruptly when a hand landed unannounced on my shoulder. I whirled around to be a few inches from the absolute most attractive thing I'd ever seen.

Cyrus was grinning at me, his helmet lodged securely between his arm and side. He was wearing a teal jumpsuit with an intriguing design of white computer-circuits dancing across it. It almost looked like a futuristic, science-fiction uniform, and it looked awesome on him. His ruffled hair was slightly damp from his light sweating, which was considerably less then the rest of the drivers. His chocolate eyes gazed up at me happily yet hesitant, almost as though asking whether I was proud of him or not. Which I definitely was.

"Hey! You did so awesome! First place? On day one? Wow." He crinkled his eyes adorably as his smile widened, and a blush dusted his cheeks. Then, leaning just an inch closer and lowering my voice, I smiled fondly. "I'm proud of you, Cy." His eyes sparkled like I'd just given him a planet as a gift, and he dramatically dropped his helmet before pulling me in a hug. I grinned and nuzzled my head into his brown hair.

"Thank you, TJ." His voice was slightly muffled by his head on my shoulder, but I acknowledged him by squeezing him tighter. He eventually let go, much to my disappointment, but quickly made p for it by grabbing my hand as he dragged me into the private drivers' lounge.

"Hey, guys!" The greeted once we were walking in the door to the lounge, Cyrus only dropping my hand when we went to sit on a couch. Most of the drivers were still outside, but a few faces from the night before like Amber, Andi, and two other boys, Jonah and Walker, were already chilling. I sat back in the very comfortable couch, my previous momentary fear of the awkwardness of being the only mechanic in the drivers-only section dissipating instantly once I saw the girls and Jonah. Cyrus plopped himself directly next to me with his side pressed against mine despite the large couch's empty space. Not that I was complaining.

"Hey, congratulations on first place!" Cyrus beamed, stealing a glance at me before returning his gaze to the blonde girl.

"Thank you!" I scanned the room, noticing Jonah and Walker's close proximity as they talked cheerily, obvious to the world around them. Amber and Andi were sitting face-to-face on the floor, giggling and trading phones to show each other pictures. In the far end of the room, I noticed a small bar and a refrigerator, as well as a plastic box of some kind of muffins on the counter. I smiled cheekily at Cyrus before jumping up and strolling into the 'kitchen'. The muffins were chocolate-chocolate-chip, of which the brown-haired boy had mentioned were his favorite in the midst of our random factual trading.

I grabbed two, stuffing mine in my mouth and sighing in pleasure. Yeah, I can see why he likes them so much. I half-skipped back over to the boy, hiding the muffin behind my back until I sat down, offering it to him. He looked at me appreciatively before devouring the muffin joyfully. Once I finished mine, I noticed Cyrus looking at me expectantly.

"Hi?" I tilted my head slightly in confusion.

"What do you say we go for a ride? I'm bored." He smirked, an expression I had yet to see, and that was all it took for me to nod despite me having absolutely no idea what he meant.

~

"This is awesome!" I beamed, letting my hair whip around my head in Cyrus' well-maintained, classic perky blue 1950's finned Cadillac convertible. Turns out he drove the stylish convertible in public, only using the race car for actual races. "I love this car!" He briefly turned to grin at me as the beach-like summer air blew past.

"Me too. I'm glad I found it." After driving a while, the Sun began to set and we parked in an isolated, open place. Like the ones in the '50's movies where the characters would sit out, on the front of their car, and watch the huge full moon come into view. We talked about all sorts of random things as we laid on our backs until the boy made a comment I couldn't quite place.

"What do you mean 'it's getting better'? What is?" I turned my head to the side only to be met with impossibly close chocolate eyes already looking. My breathing hitched and I forced myself not to subconsciously look down.

"My anxiety. I've have a few panic attacks from time to time." I gave him a soft smile in which he immediately returned. "I haven't had one for a few months though, thankfully. I just..." I furrowed my eyebrows as he searched my face.

"Just what?" He snapped his gaze back to my eyes when I spoke.

"Just... I just wish I was normal, sometimes. Like you." I scoffed.

"Hey, normal is relative. Besides, I'm not normal either, then. I have dyscalculia. It's a math dyslexia." 'And that's not the only thing' my thoughts kept shouting, but I didn't say anything more.

"Yeah, I've heard of that. There's nothing wrong with it. With you, for having it." I smiled softly.

"Thank you." He grinned, but then he searched my face again and the smile disappeared. He sighed shakily and turned to look up at the newly-visible stars.

"Th-That's not the only thing, though." His voice was low, almost a whisper. "I-I'm gay." He squeezed his eyes shut, probably expecting a bad reaction. Once I finally registered and accepted what he said, I shook off my shock and grabbed his hand confidently, intertwining our fingers. He opened his eyes again and looked at me hesitantly, in which I returned with a grin.

"So am I." The way his eyes widened was comical, but soon melted into a smile filled with relief and happiness.

"Really?"

"Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

• Cyrus' POV •

The race was close, as Buffy fought for my place in first. As the distance decreased until the finish line, I got ahead of her slightly. I was better than her, and I'm not normally one to admit that, but she was too competitive to give up easily. But I didn't think she'd play rough. Buffy had intentionally bumped into me, not enough to effect her but just enough to send me out of control.

My car went into a tailspin as I swerved off the road, the speed sending me flying inside the car. A spiking pain shot through my right leg as my race car slowed down, and I couldn't even see out of the windows as the dust had been stirred up so heavily. It didn't help that my vision was quickly becoming staggered and unsteady. And then, black.

~

"Are you insane? You could have killed him!"

"He's not dead, is he? Then stop being such a jerk! The manager certainly didn't make a fuss about it, considering I'm still in the race unpunished, so why should you?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you risked his life for your own selfish, excessive need to win?" I opened my eyes slowly, wincing as my head pounded and the deafening noise echoed into my ears. I was lying on a hospital bed, and I desperately tried to focus on my surroundings as my eyes swam from the dizziness overtaking me. I blinked a few times, soon managing to identify Buffy and TJ standing in front of my bed, arguing between each other loudly.

"Watch your tone! Now come on, let's get out of here and go celebrate. I did win first place, after all. We're all going to that place in town."

"No."

"What?"

"You heard me. I said 'no'."

"Why not?"

"Why the freak do you think not? I'm not leaving Cyrus!" He pointed at me, but his glare was locked onto Buffy.

"Fine, be that way. I'm going."

"I don't really care what you do." Just before the curly-haired girl walked through the doorway, she turned slowly to send a final remark before storming off.

"We might've been friends for a long time, but you're putting your job on the line here." I shifted slightly after a moment, only to groan at the intense pain in my leg once again. TJ's eyes quickly snapped to me, and he rushed over.

"Hey, hey. You're awake. You okay?" He gently placed his hand on my own as he hovered over me, causing me to focus my attention to his concerned, soft, green eyes.

"My leg hurts and my head is throbbing. How did I get here?"

"Ambulance. You have a mild concussion and you broke your leg. Do you need me to get you anything?" I intertwined our fingers as he sat down, shaking my head very lightly in an attempt not to aggravate the headache.

"I heard you and Buffy." He swallowed nervously, looking to the floor.

"Oh."

"You don't have to stay here, TJ. I'm fine, I don't-"

"No! You misunderstand, I want to stay."

"I know, but I don't want you to lose your job or get in trouble with Buffy."

"It's fine, Cy. It's my choice." There was a comfortable silence for a minute, until I tried to lighten the situation by changing the subject slightly.

"Who won?"

"Buffy first, Marty second." His jaw was visibly clenched, and I squeezed his hand.

"Hey, it's okay. Things like this happen."

"It didn't have to happen, to you. That was intentional. She could have-" I stroked his hand with my thumb to interrupt, and gave him a soft smile.

"Teej, it's okay. I'm okay."

"I was worried."

"I know, I know. But I'm fine, now, see?" He stood up, never letting go of my hand, and carefully hugged me. It was a little uncomfortable, since he was leaning over the bed's railing and I was half laying down, but it got the message across. He let go after a moment, in which I missed his warmth immediately, before he cautiously climbed over and laid next to me with our interlocked hands lying in the tight space between us.

"Hey, TJ?"

"Yeah?" He turned his head to look at me, and my breathing hitched at our proximity before I remembered what I was going to say.

"I think you just got your chance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't understand the ending, it will be explained in the next chapter. But also, if you go back to chapter one, the ending for that chapter is what Cyrus is commenting about.


End file.
